Owing to their high density of 17 to 18.6 g/cm3, tungsten heavy metal alloys are suitable for screening short-wave electromagnetic radiation. They are therefore frequently used for radiation protection or for beam guidance in X-ray devices. Other applications are, for example, counterweights in the aviation and automotive industry or mold components for aluminum die casting molds.
Tungsten heavy metal alloys consist of about 90% by weight to about 97% by weight of tungsten. The remaining proportion comprises binder metals. Such metal sheets are commercially available in thicknesses of about 0.4 mm to about 1.2 mm, but, because of roll treatment, have anisotropic material properties and an anisotropic microstructure (based on tungsten).
Tungsten heavy metal components are generally sintered close to the final shape and then machined or, in the case of flat components, produced from metal sheets.
Various problems occur in the production of tungsten heavy metal sheets and also sheets comprising molybdenum alloys:                In general, only very limited rolling can be introduced between two annealing steps. In the case of excessive rolling, the metal sheets break and become unusable. Typical, permitted degrees of deformation are below 20% between two annealing steps. In the case of metal sheet thicknesses below 0.4 mm, it is necessary to carry out more than 4 annealings. This makes the process significantly more complicated if it is intended to produce thin metal sheets.        Owing to their length, the rolled, thin metal sheets can be annealed only with difficulty in customary production furnaces. Space-saving rolling up cannot be carried out owing to the brittleness of the metal sheets, so that in general a large number of small metal sheets has to be processed. As a result of this, the production of thin metal sheets having a thickness of 0.5 mm or less is significantly more complicated.        As a result of the production process, the known metal sheets exhibit anisotropic, i.e. direction-dependent, material properties within the plane of the metal sheet and a texture in which the <100> and <110> directions are oriented parallel to the normal of the metal sheet.        